<Begin Segment 5>

MA: So you, then, remember that day, leaving, and you were headed to Tanforan, is that correct?

TN: Right. They put us on a Greyhound bus, and I can remember sitting on the bus and seeing us go over this bridge, and we were going to San Bruno, which is not too far from Berkeley. And the first place we had to stay -- because all of this took place so quickly that the government didn't have time to prepare a place for us. I mean, ten or twelve thousand people from the Bay Area going into one racetrack, and that's what it was. It was called Tanforan Racetrack. There were some barracks built, but most of them were not, so where did they put us? They put us in the horse stalls. And I can distinctly remember that the floors had hay on 'em, and smelled like a horse had been there recently. And we had straw mattresses, and the smell was quite evident. But thankfully, the government just had us stay there six or eight weeks, and then they moved us to barracks.

MA: You mean they moved you from the horse stalls to barracks?

TN: To barracks they were building. And the barracks were located inside the track, and they were, I don't know, 20x40 feet and maybe four or five families were in each barrack. And there were no walls, I mean, it was just one big room with four or five families, so what we did was we strung up string on the ceilings, and then just hung sheets over the string, and that was our walls. This area was one family, and right through the sheet was the other family. It still didn't provide privacy, but it was better than nothing.

MA: Right. How did you spend your time in Tanforan? What did you occupy yourself with during that time?

TN: Well, as a seven-year-old boy I was just playing. I remember one day I fell down and cut my wrist fairly badly. And I've still got that scar, but it got sewed up. As a young boy -- and we were only there six months, so that was about it.

MA: During that time in Tanforan, what was the atmosphere like in your family? I mean, was it, did your parents talk about what would happen, what they thought was gonna happen? Did they talk about... what sorts of things went on?

TN: Well, one of the bad things about this internment was the government put these signs on telephone poles and said -- oh, I might add, they only gave one week to collect all your items that you were gonna bring. And all of the items that you were gonna leave behind, you had to make provisions for, meaning that you either sold them or put 'em in these storage warehouses. And I mean, how can you sell everything in one week, let alone a year? It'd be hard to do. So anyway, there was a great, great loss there of personal property. And I kind of forgot what I was... my point was.

MA: How were your, just about your parents and how they were in Tanforan specifically, and how they were...

TN: Oh, that's right. Well, you know, I really can't say that I remember that part too clearly. I mean, we just lived in this sheet-filled room, which was probably not much bigger than this area right here, and there was a bed, and we'd just go in there and sit down on the bed and look at the bare walls. And the barracks were similar to the ones in Topaz, tarpaper. I do know my dad had some kind of leadership position, he was a barrack sergeant or something, yeah.

MA: Was there any sort of school set up for the kids, or did you, do you remember going to school at all, having classes in Tanforan?

TN: For six months -- I guess they must have had some kind of school, but I don't recall going to school there.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.